Tag Archives: plant-based

This easy soup is one of my daughter’s favorites (even though she doesn’t like sweet potatoes). Serve with bread and a salad or veggie and you have a nice meal! I like doubling this and freezing the extra.

1 medium/large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons peeled and minced fresh ginger

1 red pepper, chopped (about 1 cup)

2 medium carrots, diced (about 1 cup)

half a pinch cayenne pepper

fresh ground black pepper

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed (a little over 1 pound)

3 cups veggie broth

1 lb tomatoes, chopped or 1 small can diced tomatoes (with juice)

1/3 cup creamy natural peanut butter

Sauté the onion until soft and translucent. Add garlic and ginger and sauté a few minutes more. Add all remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Simmer into everything is soft. Pureé using an immersion blender or in batches using a container blender. I like the smoothness by blending in my Vitamix and I often make this soup in the morning and then blend when cool at dinnertime.

This delicious soup goes wonderfully paired with some homemade bread. Add a salad and you have a very complete, satisfying and delicious meal! Next time, I will double this for sure, as it only makes about 4 dinner sized portions.

1 large onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

5 carrots, chopped

5 celery stalks, chopped

3 cups veggie broth

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1/2 Tbsp ground ginger

1 Tbsp curry powder

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 cup red lentils, rinsed well

1 can coconut milk

Sauté onion until soft. Add garlic and sauté a few minutes more. Add everything else except red lentils and coconut milk and simmer for about 25 minutes or until carrots and celery are mostly tender. Add red lentils and coconut milk and simmer until lentils are very soft. Enjoy!

This is a delicious vegan twist on Indian Butter Chicken inspired by a Vegan Richa recipe. The chicken is replaced by soy curls, which have a creepily similar texture to chicken. Creaminess from the cashew cream replaces the butter. This is currently one of my 9 year old’s favorite meals! Serve over rice, quinoa, or with indian bread.

6 roma tomatoes

8 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp fresh ginger

1 green pepper, stem and seeds removed

1 1/2 cups water

2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp paprika

pinch cayenne

1 1/2 tsp salt

5.5 oz soy curls

2 cans chickpeas

2/3 cup cashews

1 cup water

1 tsp more garam masala for later

1/2 tsp ground mustard

1 green pepper, diced

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Purée tomatoes, garlic, ginger, green pepper and water.

In an InstantPot, pressure cooker, or soup pot, combine purée, spices, soy curls and chickpeas. Cook in InstantPot or pressure cooker for 11 minutes or cook on stove until soy curls are tender.

While that is cooking, puree cashews and water.

Once the soy curl/chickpea mixture is done, add in cashew cream, additional garam masala, ground mustard and green pepper. Cook until heated through (use sauté feature if using InstantPot). Serve over rice or quinoa and garnished with cilantro.

This was a surprise favorite of everyone in the house, even the skeptical 8 year old. Tastes like an Indian dish – maybe I should call it Chana Tomatillo.

This was a fairly easy dish that we served over rice (1 cup brown rice to go with this amount) with a side of sauteed kale. This made 3-4 servings. Next time I will double this for more yummy leftovers.

Modified from a chef de home recipe.

1 lb tomatillos, husk removed and washed, whole

1 anaheim/poblano/other pepper, whole

1 onion, chopped into 8ths

1/2 cup cilantro

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp salt (1/2 tsp if your chickpeas are salted), or to taste

1 1/2 Tbsp curry powder

3/4 cup coconut milk

2 cans chickpeas (I used unsalted), somewhat mashed if desired

1/4 cup water

Prepare a baking pan with foil and turn the oven broiler on high. Place whole tomatillos, whole pepper, and onion chunks on the pan. Broil for about 10 minutes, flipping everything over halfway through. Cool and then remove charred skin, stems, seeds, etc.

Combine roasted tomatillos, pepper, onion, cilantro, oregano and salt in a blender or food processor and pulse until the consistency of a well chopped salsa.

In a dry sauce pan, roast curry powder over medium heat for a minute. Add tomatillo salsa mixture, coconut milk, chickpeas, and water and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

A delicious new take on tacos for us… we tend to get in a taco (or burrito) rut and make the same old things every time. This was a wonderful way to change it up! And two thumbs up from the 8 year old, too. Inspired by a Vegetarian Times recipe.

1 lb tomatillos, husks removed and washed, but whole

3 garlic cloves, peeled, whole

1 red pepper, whole

1 onion, chopped into 8ths

1 anaheim/poblano/other pepper, whole

1/4 cup cilantro

10 corn tortillas

2 cans black beans (warmed)

salt (3/4 tsp if beans unsalted, 1/4 tsp if salted)

1 avocado, chopped

1/2 cup corn (warmed if frozen)

1 tomato, chopped

Turn oven broiler on high. Prepare a baking pan with foil. Place tomatillos, garlic, red pepper, onion, and spicy pepper on the baking pan and broil for about 10 minutes, flipping everything over halfway through. After cooled off, remove charred skin, stems, seeds, etc, from all the veggies.

In a blender or food processor, combine: tomatillos, garlic, onions, spicy pepper & cilantro. Pulse until the consistency of salsa. Mix with the warmed black beans. Salt to taste.

Fixins: Chop the roasted red pepper and put in a bowl. Other fixins for the taco include: avocado, corn and tomato.

My daughter and I first tried a version of these at our local natural grocery store at a food demo. I modified them to suit my needs and they are a favorite in our house. Messy to eat but so delicious. And it’s super quick and easy – no cooking involved!

This is a perfect topping for the lettuce wraps. You can make this peanut-free if you’d like by using all almond butter instead of half almond, half peanut. Or, if you prefer, use all peanut butter. Either way, it’s super quick – no cooking needed.

3 heaping Tbsp almond butter (preferably just ground almonds)

3 heaping Tbsp peanut butter (preferably just ground peanuts)

2 Tbsp reduced-sodium tamari

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1 tsp granulated garlic powder

1 tsp ginger powder

2 Tbsp hot water (or more as needed)

Combine everything in a bowl or measuring up and whisk well. Serve with lettuce wraps or spring rolls or anything you’d like!